Birthday weekend!

And what a great weekend it was!  On Friday night our program put on a Halloween party in which we were all supposed to dress up.  Well, most of us have zero costume worthy clothes with us- there is only so much room in a suit case- so we all got pretty creative.

There were two nerds, one swimmer, a greek goddess, an American (with her passport sticking out of her pocket), a dominican (carrying a flag and dressed in the colors same colors), and two of the Mirabal sisters.  One woman dressed up like one of the guys in our group.    She borrowed his clothes and acted like him the whole night.  It was perfect!

I went as a kite stuck in a tree.  I wore brown pants and a green shirt and made a kite out of cardboard and string.  I even made a paper bird and stuck it in my hair.

After stuffing ourselves with candy and chips and carmel apples (my contribution to the buffet) we held a costume competition.  We had to individually model walk in front of the group, explain our costume to the three Dominican judges and then show off our dance skills.  Oh, my!  After the first round there were five finalist: me, the two nerds, the swimmer and the girl/boy.

Round 2 consisted of a talent show.  Soooo was not expecting this.  We had ten minutes to think of something we could show to the group.  I ended up folding a paper crane and explaining that it was a bird that would live in my branches.  After this judging the winner was picket - the swimmer - and two of us had a dance off for second.  Me and a nerd.  Let's just say he won hands down.  Which I am totally happy about.  He got maracas, I won a Dominican flag pen holder.

Yesterday was beach day!  Yes!  This was my first trip to the beach not planned by our program and it was fun and relaxing.  I got up at 6:20 (yes- on my birthday, which was a Saturday, I got up earlier than I do for classes) to be at the bus station by 8.  A two hour trip later and we were spreading our towels out on the super fine sand of Sosua.  Wonderful!  I ate fried chicken and tostones (fried plantains) for lunch with a yummy (virgin) piña colada.  Yeah, super crazy with the alcohol, I know.

Back to the city and a pizza party and watching Hocus Pocus, that fantastic, cheesy, kids halloween movie about witches.  A good day all around.

Today's been very relaxing too.  Church in the morning, homework and skyping with family and friends.  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  It's been really wonderful!

Ps- Thanks mom and dad for the camera!  It takes amazing pictures!